Maverick Independent MP makes the jump to Labor

By Alex Mitchell

May 7, 2006 — 10.00am

UPPER House Independent MP Peter Breen has crossed the floor to join the ranks of the Labor Party and will attend his first ALP caucus meeting on Tuesday.

Mr Breen, 58, a former solicitor and seminarian, yesterday received a warm welcome from Premier Morris Iemma who said his experience in legal and community issues would add to policy debates within the party room.

"Peter Breen has proven himself to be a strong advocate for social justice and equality, values that the Labor Party was built on," Mr Iemma said.

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Lismore-based "Breenie the Greenie", a committed environmentalist, told The Sun-Herald he expected a "furious bagging" from Parliament's three Green MPs who would probably feel betrayed.

Explaining his decision to join the ALP, Mr Breen said: "You can only do so much as an individual. When you are on your own it's hard to promote major changes in Parliament."

He revealed that a speech in March by Attorney-General Bob Debus giving support to a bill of rights to safeguard the rights and freedoms of citizens triggered his move to the Labor Party.

Mr Breen, who co-founded the Australian Bill of Rights Party in the 1990s, said the Debus speech was a significant break from the policy of former premier Bob Carr who regularly dismissed the idea of a bill of rights.

"I began talks with ministers and Labor backbenchers and one day they pushed a membership form under my door," he said. "I thought about it, filled it in and sent it back."

Mr Breen said the form asked what trade union he belonged to and he had written, "None".

"It doesn't seem to have been a problem because it went through the [ALP] administrative committee on Friday."

Asked whether he was ready to toe the party line, Mr Breen, a former president of Campbelltown Young Liberals, said: "Even if I vote with the Government, I don't expect to be muzzled in Parliament during debates."

Entering Parliament in 1999 as the lone representative of the Reform the Legal System Party, he has been sitting as an independent since his party evolved into the Human Rights Party in 2005.

When his eight-year term ends at next March's state election, Mr Breen will pursue his political career and put himself forward as a Labor candidate in electorates on the Far North Coast.

As a crossbencher he was responsible for securing the passage of the State Arms, Symbols and Emblems Act which led to the royal coat of arms being replaced on all public buildings and official letterheads with the NSW coat of arms.

A direct descendant of convict William Davis who was transported for his part in the 1798 Irish uprising, Mr Breen spent two years in a Catholic seminary before joining the law firm of John Marsden and former premier John Fahey in 1969.

While his move to the Labor benches does not give the ALP a majority in the upper house it strengthens its hand in cutting deals with the minor parties.